Rutabaga Posted December 16, 2014 Report Share Posted December 16, 2014 This forum automatically switches to a mobile-friendly format when accessed by a smartphone. (I have accessed it both through an iPhone and through a Blackberry.) The mobile version is quite functional and definitely easy to work with on a small screen. However, the default appearance of the mobile version is a white background, not the dark gray used on the full version of the site. There is no problem as long as posters leave their posts in the default text color of the full site -- the mobile version presents this as dark text against a white background. However, if the poster gets fancy and changes the default text color to something that looks nifty against the charcoal gray background -- such as light blue, or yellow, or (worst of all) white -- the mobile version faithfully carries over the text color change, making the post nearly unreadable or, in the case of white text, completely invisible. My question therefore is whether it is possible, in the forum software settings, to suppress the text color changes (in the mobile version only) so that posts with altered text color can be read on a mobile device? R Link to comment
Rutabaga Posted January 1, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 1, 2015 Just thought I'd follow up with a couple of screen shots illustrating the problems with styled post text on the mobile platform. The first shows what happens with light blue text color. The second (dude) shows what happens when Comic Sans is selected as the font -- it gets converted to a nearly illegible script font. I'm hoping there's a setting in the forum software to disable font styling only in the mobile version of the site, so that the text will come out looking normal and be readable. Note that for whatever reason these screen shots are reproducing at more than double the size that they appear on the actual iPhone where they were shot. Take that into account when evaluating readability. It really is difficult. And I didn't bother to show one instance where a poster selected white as the text color -- that post is completely invisible with white text against the white background that the mobile version uses. Light blue type color: Comic Sans type font: R Link to comment
colinian Posted January 4, 2015 Report Share Posted January 4, 2015 I have no problem accessing the forums or the stories from my Android smartphone and tablet. They default to white on black or the color chosen by the poster. Colin Link to comment
Rutabaga Posted January 4, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2015 Here's what happens when the poster sets white for the font color. I had this exact same problem on my Blackberry Bold 9900 so it seems that Blackberries and iPhones both have issues with the mobile settings. R Link to comment
Rutabaga Posted January 4, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2015 I have no problem accessing the forums or the stories from my Android smartphone and tablet. They default to white on black or the color chosen by the poster. Colin It sounds as though your Android is accessing the full site rather than the mobile version. R Link to comment
Paul Posted January 4, 2015 Report Share Posted January 4, 2015 Using Safari on my iPad, a switch to the mobile version renders text formatted in Comic Sans as white-on-white. Full site version presents it as the hard-to-decipher script font. Link to comment
TalonRider Posted January 4, 2015 Report Share Posted January 4, 2015 Maybe this issue will be taken care of when the next version, 4.x.x of IPB software is released, which should be soon. Currently AD is using v3.4.6. Link to comment
Rutabaga Posted January 5, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 5, 2015 I'm just wondering whether there is a Theme (or whatever it may be called) for the mobile version that can be tweaked. R Link to comment
Lugnutz Posted January 5, 2015 Report Share Posted January 5, 2015 Don't change anything here. Spell check is working again. Link to comment
colinian Posted January 5, 2015 Report Share Posted January 5, 2015 It sounds as though your Android is accessing the full site rather than the mobile version. R I'm using the full site. On my Galaxy 3 tablet it displays the site in a 'responsive design' mobile format which works great, both on the main site and the forums. I don't have time tonight to forward the screenshot to my PC so I can display it on the post (something I can't do with my tablet right now). Colin Link to comment
dude Posted January 14, 2015 Report Share Posted January 14, 2015 We have to be very careful when adjusting things on the IPB board because of the various platforms involved. Every time IPB updates their software, I have to jump through hoops to maintain our desited 'look.' The problem is that skins usually come from third-party suppliers. This Halloween-type color scheme we use -which is complementary to our website motif- is hard to find. Twice in the past, the skin-designer has either gone out of business or lost interest in producing a variety of skins when it came for IPB upgrades. The black/grey background was chosen for readability by folks (like myself) who have problems with black on white displays. The next time we have to update the IPB software and have to find another skin ... I'll also try to find one that provides a skin for the mobile version that matches. Until recently there has not been much of a market for such a thing... but as Bob Dylan said... 'Times, they are a changin' Just as we're working to provide site content that plays well on tablets and smartphones... we'll also do our best to do the same with the Forums. Mike Link to comment
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